Clifford Frost (left) listens to the judge during his court hearing on Oct 6, 2023 in Lansing, Michigan. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)
The exam for six people charged with submitting false electoral votes for former President Donald Trump finally wrapped up Wednesday, as defense attorneys fine-tuned their arguments that their clients had no intention to break the law when they signed the documents at the Michigan Republican Party headquarters in Lansing on Dec. 14, 2020, six weeks after the election.
The six defendants out of 15 facing charges are: Rose Rook, Clifford Frost, Marian Sheridan, Kenneth Thompson, William Choate and Mayra Rodriguez.
Initially, 16 individuals were charged with submitting false electoral votes for Trump to the U.S. Senate and National Archives, but the charges against James Renner were dropped in October as part of a cooperation agreement with the AG’s office. Renner has testified as a prosecution witness in both of the exams so far.
Each defendant faces eight counts including charges of forgery, conspiracy to commit forgery, uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, election law forgery and conspiracy to commit election law forgery. The forgery-related charges each carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, while the election law charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Exams begin for next group of people charged in fake electors scheme
The day began with Michael Bullotta, the attorney for Rook, making a motion that Ingham County District Judge Kristen Simmons drop the charges against his client as there had been “no affirmative evidence” that she intended to create a false document nor falsely submit it in place of the legal electoral votes cast that day for Joe Biden, who won the vote in Michigan by more than 154,000 votes. The attorneys for the remaining defendants then indicated that they, too, would make such a motion.
Simmons immediately shut that avenue down, saying motions could be made at the end of the exam, not at the end of the prosecution’s case, which concluded on Tuesday.
“Typically nine times out of 10, defense doesn’t even call witnesses in a preliminary examination,” said Simmons, who rejected a similar motion in October for two of the first set of defendants.
“Nine times out of 10, I don’t have seven days straight of [an] exam. I probably could have cut you off a long time ago, but I wanted you all to have more than enough time to delve into the evidence because there’s so much evidence in this case,” she added. “I recognize all that’s at stake in this case, as well. So that’s why I’ve been so lenient with allowing the amount of time, but at this point, the exam is not concluded if we still have witnesses.”
With that, Howard Shock, a special agent investigator with the Michigan Department of Attorney General, returned to the stand. This time, however, his testimony was as a defense witness. Shock’s credibility has been battered by the defense over the past few days, including on Monday, which drew criticism from the judge concerning his ability to competently discuss how he carried out the investigation.
That criticism continued Tuesday when Assistant Attorney General LaDonna Logan tried to have Shock further define his earlier testimony that the defendants’ effort had sought to “pause” the lawful counting of electoral votes, and instead replace the legal ballots. When defense attorneys objected that Logan was leading Shock to produce a desired answer, the prosecutor told Simmons that she was allowed “to impeach my own witness.
Simmons was quick to respond.
“Impeach away. That just discredits him further and further,” she said.
But on Wednesday, the defense attorneys weren’t working to discredit Shock as much as use his testimony to discredit the rationale for the charges brought against their clients.
Ingham County Judge Kristen Simmons presides over a preliminary exam in Lansing for six of the defendants in the Attorney General’s case against individuals it says submitted false election results for the 2020 presidential election. The court appearance took place on Dec. 13, 2023. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)
“You don’t have any evidence that anyone told Rose Rook that they would be mailing the documents to Washington D.C., or to the Senate. You’d agree there’s no evidence in that, correct?” asked Bullotta.
“Correct,” replied Shock.
Bullotta then asked if Shock had any evidence if Rook was told that the goal of signing the documents was to create a pause in the counting of votes by Vice President Pence when the U.S. Senate convened to count the electoral votes of each state and affirm Biden’s win.
Again, Shock conceded he had no such evidence.
“Would you agree that Miss Rook and these other folks were put in a very perilous situation by the Michigan Republican Party and the Trump attorneys by having them sign this document in this unprecedented situation?,” Bullotta asked Shock.
When the investigator said he couldn’t agree with that description, Bullotta tried a different tack.
“Given everything you’ve heard, all the questions, on a personal level, do you feel bad that you brought these charges now that you realize what the evidence is?”
“I feel that I did my job,” said Shock.
Similar lines of questioning were made by other defense attorneys toward Shock, trying to create doubt about the prosecution’s contention that the defendants not only knew what they were doing was criminal, but intended to do so.
Instead, the groundwork was laid to paint a picture of the six defendants being misled as to what their purpose was in Lansing that day. One of the chief targets in that effort was Kenneth Chesebro, the former Trump attorney who has admitted to orchestrating a multi-state fake elector plot to present fake elector documents in favor of a Trump presidency, and who pleaded guilty last October to a felony count in Georgia as part of that plot. He is also an unindicted co-conspirator in the Michigan case, along with Trump, and several others, including Trump lawyers Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani.
Shock earlier revealed that Chesebro had been cooperating with their investigation, including turning over an email that contained a copy of a false certificate that the defendants later signed. Defense attorneys have argued that their clients were under the belief they were filling out the document as an alternate slate of electors, and not as the duly sworn electors required by law to cast their votes for the winner of Michigan’s popular vote, which was Biden.
On Oct. 10, ex-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, left, conferred with his defense lawyer, Scott Grubman, during a Fulton County court hearing in the sweeping 2020 presidential election interference case. Two weeks later, Chesebro returned to court Oct. 20 to plead guilty to his role in trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election results. (Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP)
Kevin Kijewski, attorney for Frost, pointed out to Shock that Chesebro on Tuesday was among three people charged in Wisconsin with felony forgery related to casting false electoral votes there.
“Knowing that he got charged with another crime, does that give you any pause for reflection to go back to the information that you have on Mr. Chesebro that he provided … to double check it or ascertain the validity or credibility of it?” he asked.
“Yes,” confirmed Shock.
On cross-examination, Logan had Shock confirm that the document signed by the defendants in no way stated that they were to be considered an alternate slate of electors or that their votes were only to be used on a contingent basis, pending a court order or act of the legislature. Logan also referenced a video made that day of several of the defendants approaching the Capitol and trying to deliver documents that prosecutors contend were purporting to be the official tally of electoral votes.
“Does Ian Northon in the video identify that he’s holding the Republican slate of votes?” she asked Shock, who confirmed that he does.
Northon is an attorney identified by former Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) to the Jan. 6 committee as one of those who had been pressuring him to illegally appoint the fake electors.
Northon told investigators that his conversations with Shirkey had been on behalf of several clients of his in the Legislature at the time, including former state Rep. Daire Rendon (R-Lake City), who is also seen in the video at the Capitol.
Unrelated to this case, Rendon is also facing charges alongside Republican former attorney general nominee Matt DePerno and attorney Stefanie Lambert Junttila as part of an investigation into tampering with voting machines following the 2020 election.
Logan further had Shock confirm that his investigation determined that the document created by Chesebro was meant to be sent to the Michigan Legislature on the day of the electoral balloting so that it might be chosen to represent Michigan in the Electoral College instead of the lawful slate of electors.
The final defense witness was former Republican Party Communications Director Tony Zammit, who was asked about a conference call that he took part in a day or two prior to Dec. 14, 2020. Also on the call, according to Zammit, was then-Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox, MIGOP Political Director Troy Hudson and the party’s legal counsel, Stu Sandler.
“I was told they [the defendants] were coming to sign an affidavit that was to say that if evidence was found that would overturn the results of the election, that they would be willing to serve as the state’s electors,” said Zammit, who described the intended tone of the affidavit as a contingency.
He further testified that he did not believe the people who then gathered at GOP headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, thought that what they were signing was in any way meant to supersede the lawful slate of electors.
Former Republican Party Communications Director Tony Zammit being sworn in on final day of exam for defendants in “fake elector” case. June 5, 2024. Screenshot.
Zammit also testified that Shawn Flynn, an attorney for the Trump campaign, was present that day and convened the meeting. When it was over, Zammit said he was asked by Hudson to go to the building’s basement.
“They were passing out a signature page. It was lying on the table. I remember just that one page,” he said, adding that he saw no other documents.
Zammit said he was “taken aback” when Flynn later told him he had to send the documents to the Secretary of State, the Vice President’s office and the National Archives and seemed to be “proud of it.”
He also said when he heard that a group of those present planned to walk to the Capitol and deliver the documents, he made an announcement that he was personally uncomfortable with that idea and that the Michigan Republican Party was not asking them to do that.
When Zammit tried to say the electors probably weren’t culpable, Logan objected and noted by his own testimony, Zammit said he was in his office for approximately an hour while the meeting was taking place and only went down to the basement in the final five to 10 minutes.
Simmons overruled the objection and allowed Zammit to continue, to which he said he felt that Flynn had taken advantage of the defendants and had said as much to Shock when he was interviewed by the AG investigator. Logan, however, got Zammit to concede that none of the defendants seemed hesitant to sign the documents, nor refused to do so.
Following Zammit’s testimony, the defense rested and Simmons indicated that she would need time to digest the testimony from the exams, as well as the various briefs she expected from the defense before deciding whether there is sufficient evidence to order a trial for the six defendants.
Simmons decided in January to split up the docket into two groups, with preliminary exams concluding in April for six others, including Michigan GOP National Committeewoman Kathleen Berden, former Michigan GOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock, Amy Facchinello, John Haggard, Mari-Ann Henry and Michele Lundgren.
Three other defendants, Stanley Grot, Timothy King, and Kent Vandwerwood, had their cases continued to later dates.
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